I Photographed Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Concert At Cincinnati’s PayCor Stadium 2023

Anticipation Of A Media Pass

I photographed Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concert in Cincinnati. Since the day Taylor Swift announced the Eras Tour concert dates in November 2022, I have been anticipating attending both Cincinnati shows at PayCor Stadium. While Dave Matthews Band has been my favorite band since 1998, Taylor and all she stands for as well as her lyrics have had her at the top of my list for the last 5 years. I had seen her in Indianapolis a long time ago, Lexington in 2015, and Louisville in 2018. So when I saw she was coming close to home, I had to go. Additionally, we went to the Taylor Swift show in Nashville on night 3; the epic rain show.

Due to the Ticketmaster debacle, we ended up with 2nd-row-from-the-top tickets to night 3 in Nashville, Tennessee at Nissan Stadium. While anticipating this show, we were lucky enough to get a second chance at face-value Taylor Swift tickets for night 2 in Cincinnati (July 1, 2023). We ended up with floor seats against the stage.

The other thing I was anticipating nearly as much was a media pass for night one (June 30, 2023) in Cincinnati. I shoot national touring acts for Cincinnati CityBeat and smaller shows for CincyMusic.com. For this show, the biggest concert tour in the world for 2023, I wasn’t taking any chances. I immediately placed my request to shoot the show with the publication. And then the waiting game (of 8 months) began.

Granted A Media Pass

Two weeks prior to June 30, 2023, we still had not heard the status of our media pass request. About one week out, I heard from my CityBeat contact that we (yes we) had been approved for the show!! Myself, the Editor In Chief, and a great write all had passes. The two of them had review tickets while I had a photo pass. OMG me why and I were going crazy at the news. She is the biggest Taylor Swift fan I have ever met and couldn’t be more excited that our worlds were colliding. Now, I had to wait a week to photography Taylor Swift, one of the most powerful women in the country.

Media Pass Night: Taylor Swift PayCor Stadium Night 1 Concert June 30, 2023

Friday June 30 rolled around, and I left the house many hours early. Cincinnati traffic is notoriously bad, and there would be this concert, a Red’s game, and an FC Cincinnati game all happening this day. I got to Hilltop’s parking lot across from the stadium formerly known as Paul Brown Stadium. The parking was compliments of Taylor Swift’s publicist.

As part of our CityBeat coverage, I photographed Tay-Gate at The Banks, a huge celebration of Taylor, love, and joy. The Editor and writer interviewed people and took in the sites that have never before been seen in Cincy. It was such a love-filled festive experience for everyone.

At 5:30, I entered the stadium along with 7 other photographer. We were the lucky (and talented) photographers who were chosen to photograph this amazing concert. The standard experience for a concert photographer is to shoot the first 3 songs. Due to the nature of her show, we got to photograph the first two. I was ecstatic and screaming at the top of my lungs with 65000 other people. No one could hear me so I felt ok about this. I couldn’t contain my excitement.

Once Lady Gaga’s “Applause” came on, the group went bananas. This is the penultimate song before the show begins. After the song eded, the final pre-show song came on along with a 2:24 countdown clock indicating we only had 144 seconds until Taylor took the stage. The time came, and she rose up out of the center diamond part of the stage. Because I know her music so well, I knew everywhere she would go and how she would move to the music. “Miss Americana And The Heart Break Prince” and “The Man” came and went quickly, and my night was over. I had photographed my wife’s and my #1.

The photos turned out spectacularly well, and I love them so much. I will cherish these forever because this was one of the best nights of my entire life. (aside from my wedding and child being born)

I have never been treated this well by and artist, management company, or publicist. Thank you Taylor Swift and your management. Truly first class.

Floor Seats Night: Taylor Swift PayCor Stadium Night 2 Concert July 1, 2023

For night 2, my wife and I had floor seats in Section A against the front right part of the stage. We had had front row Dixie (The) Chicks seats and front row Black Keys eats. The seats for Taylor were the best seats EVER and my wife could not believe how close we were going to be to Taylor. The weather had looked threatening all week and even prior to the show. Around 5 pm, she posted on Twitter that the show would start at 7 instead of 8 due to the weather. The show was spectacular and we only had about 1 minute of rain sprinkle. Her plan to start early had worked. It was the most amazing show we have ever seen, and we’ve been to a lot on